The Final Letter
by MissRachie
Summary: It's always hard saying goodbye. But how can you possibly say goodbye with a letter like this? /Aerith's final letter to Zack /Slight Zerith


**Title**: The Final Letter  
**Character**(**s**): Aerith Gainsborough (mentions of Zack Fair, Elmyra Gainsborough and the boy who stole Zack's wallet, whom I have named Daen)  
**Pairing**: Zerith  
**Rating**: K+, just to be on the safe side  
**Language**: English  
**Genre**: Hurt/Comfort  
**Length**: 790 word  
**Type**: One-shot/Drabble  
**Summary**: It's always hard saying goodbye. But how can you possibly say goodbye with a letter like this? | Aerith's final letter to Zack | Slight Zerith  
**Author's note**(**s**): The letter itself is the English dub version and not the English sub, so that people are aware of the difference.

* * *

Four years. Her delicate fingers wrapped around the pencil, flowing over the paper as she wrote. Her emerald green eyes barely hid the sorrow she felt as she wrote. Her final letter. To someone she knew that, despite all, she would never be able to forget. You never forget your first love, they say. And Aerith would remember, for all eternity. She would remember Zack. She was, fully convinced that she would never see the raven haired man ever again. Who would even dare to hope after four years?

How to start? A 'hello' felt far too formal by now. It was more of a 'goodbye', but she couldn't bring herself to writing such.

_How are you?_

That was a good enough start, wasn't it? She **did** want to know how he was. If he was still alive ...

_I wish I knew where you were._

She had never wished, or prayed for anything as much as she had with that. Just any kind of sign that he was alive, breathing. Even if it was so that he never wished to see her again, she needed a sign.

_It's already been four years now._

She felt her own bittersweet tone in her head as she wrote. Four years, with Elmyra, her mother and Daen (the boy that stole Zack's wallet all those years earlier) had been begging Aerith to let go. To stop writing letters to the SOLDIER that was fated to possibly never return. It took Aerith four years to finally give in. She didn't give up. She gave in to what people told her to do. To **stop**.

_This is the 89th letter that I've sent to you, but I don't even know where to send them anymore.  
I really hope that this final letter that I am writing gets to you._

She froze. She had matured a lot over the years, but nothing could keep her heart from aching. She missed him. More than she ever had before. Maybe due to the fact that she was, more or less, saying her goodbyes to a man, that with the simple mentioning of the color he thought would suit her had the young woman wearing a pink dress. It made her pink bow stand out. The bow Zack had bought her. For their friendship.

She closed her eyes, tears stinging in them.

"Zack ..." she murmured, placing one hand over her heart. _My heart. It's beating so fast_. She sighed, a lone tear rolling down her cheeks, them so naturally rosy. It fell down on the parchment on the table. Emerald green eyes opened again and she glanced down, the first wet stain joined by another and yet another. But she reacted quickly, setting the letter aside.

She tried to tell herself that it was all right. _You'll be okay, Aerith. _It was hard. With her aching heart and the tears, glistening in the dull light breaking in through the window, meeting the cold wooden surface as they fell. She had tried so hard. To forget. But in her heart, she kept on hoping. She had been hoping that one day, she would hear the doors to her church open, not to find a Turk there, but the familiar face of a man that had captured her heart so quickly.

_It hurts so much ... _She wiped her tears. "Get yourself together now ... You can do it." She reassured herself, taking a few deep breaths. What else could she possibly tell him? Without letting him know that all she really wanted was for his return. She looked out the window of her small house, noticing the flowers. _Oh._ Her eyes fell to the letter again and she continued writing.

_By the way, the flowers are selling very well._

They really were. Her mother, believing Aerith to always spend time in her church, waiting for that 'SOLDIER-boy' to return, had no idea of the amounts of money Aerith made. She would sell her flowers from all but one gil to a hundred. She had quite the knack for business. She had learned a lot with Zack. After all, it had been his idea.

_They make everyone so happy. Thanks to you, Zack._

She closed her eyes, whispering under her breath. "While they only make me think of you and my heart aches ..."

She didn't know what else to write. She wanted to write so much more. But this was goodbye. And she barely managed to force herself to write one final thing. After it was done, she quickly put the letter in its envelope. Then, without further ado, she took it to her church. Her last hope was the Angeal copy. She didn't call for it. She simply placed the letter on the floor, mumbling Zack's name before leaving.

— _Aerith_


End file.
